Offshore Wind

Sandia applies decades of land-based wind experience to address the research challenges posed by offshore wind siting and technology development. As part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s offshore wind program, we conduct research with two primary goals in mind: to reduce the technology risks associated with offshore wind power generation and to reduce the levelized cost of energy.

Large Offshore Rotor Development

200-Meter Blades

Sandia’s design for the Segmented Ultralight Morphing Rotor, a low-cost 50 Mw offshore turbine that uses
200-meter blades, could significantly increase offshore wind power performance in the United States and the world. The design, which was created as part of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program, will capture more energy than conventional turbines. The rotor’s load alignment reduces the mass required for blade stiffening, allowing the turbines to withstand severe storms. Additionally, the massive blades can be manufactured in segments, which reduces manufacturing, transportation, and assembly costs.

100-Meter Blades

Sandia has developed a series of detailed 100-meter blade reference models that are available to designers and researchers for design studies and cost analysis. The available models include an initial baseline design using glass materials and conventional airfoils. A final, slightly lighter, reference design with carbon fiber, an updated core strategy and flatback airfoils is also available.

Floating Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Estimates suggest that more than 2000 GW of wind energy are available offshore in water more than
60 meters deep. To access this tremendous energy resource, Sandia is developing and evaluating floating wind turbines.

In deep-water environments, vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) have inherent advantages over horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWTs), including lower capital, operational, and maintenance costs. Sandia combines more than 35 years of applied research on VAWT technology and advanced analysis tools to design systems suitable for deep-water environments.

Modeling Code for Simulating Offshore Wind Farms

Sandia documented and prepared the University of Minnesota’s offshore version of the Virtual Flow Simulator for Wind (VFS-Wind). It is a state-of-the-art, large eddy simulation code capable of simulating atmospheric turbulence with wind farms in both land-based and offshore environments. The offshore version of VFS-Wind is also capable of simulating offshore wind farms incorporating water, waves, and six degrees-of-freedom (DOF) fluid-structure interaction (FSI) of floating structures.

Sediment Transport & Scour Analysis

Researchers combined wave, circulation, and sediment transport modeling to predict near shore sediment stability in the presence of an offshore wind array.

Sandia leverages two decades of numerical and experimental work to examine sediment mobility risk for offshore wind structures. This research helps developers create structures and cables that are not only cost effective to deploy and require minimal maintenance in underwater environments.

Developers can use Sandia’s Offshore Wind Guidance Document to gain insight into environmental considerations for planning, operating, and maintaining an offshore wind farm.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.